No Game of Thrones? Fill The Void With These 5 TV Series to Binge On

So it has been three Sundays since we last saw a Game of Thrones episode, and already it seems an awful lot of wait until the next one. The bad news is, the next final two seasons would be shorter in terms of number of episodes, and would be released later simply because winter hasn’t come yet in GoT’s shooting locations, and therefore production will be a bit delayed. So what do we do? Seeing that Game of Thrones has raised the bar in terms of quality and production, it has become apparent that there are just a handful of TV Series that are able to keep up with the set standard. So while we are bent on waiting for what winter’s got for GoT, here’s 5 TV Series suggestions to fill the void.

Homeland

I don’t get why Homeland doesn’t get much love, at least from where I am. While most of my friends watch Game of Thrones, I can only count with one hand those I know that watch Homeland. I remember asking a colleague of mine if he knows about it, and his response was, “Yeah I do, but Claire Danes said ‘Filipinos are wily’ so I’m not watching it.” Although I don’t know the context of how Danes has said that, I can most certainly assure anyone that might be curious that her performance on this TV Series is no less than amazing, and is well worth forgetting whatever she said about us.

Homeland is about Carrie Mathison (Danes), a CIA operations officer embarking on many international espionage encounters, while dealing with her bi-polar tendencies. The series has had five seasons so far, and a sixth coming in on January 2017, so it is a perfect time to binge-watch if you haven’t seen an episode of this yet. This TV series has some of America’s best writing, and I seriously stressed out on many of the situations Carrie has been in on these past seasons.

Mr. Robot

One of my favorite movies is A Beautiful Mind — a true story about John Forbes Nash, Jr, a mathematical genius who found himself on a path of self-discovery once he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is the movie that immediately comes to mind when hearing about the premise of Mr. Robot, and there are a lot of similarities that you can draw from the lead characters of both of these stories. First, their genius. While Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career that later made international acclaim, Rami Malek’s Elliot in Mr. Robot, a cyber-security engineer and hacker, used his talents to expose corporate manipulation of many people’s lives. Secondly, they both have to deal with anxiety and schizophrenia. Nash has to find out later in life that his best friend was just a figment of his imagination all those years, while Elliot finds out later that he had been plotting a cyber coup with his long dead father, and quite frankly, there are still a lot of possibilities that there is much more things that are happening in the background that is simply just made up by Elliot in his own mind.

Mr. Robot has just started its second season, with the first season having 10 episodes, and already with much acclaim. I thought Malek’s portrayal of the doom-and-gloom Elliot character was spot on, although sometimes it’s just so tiresome and you’d hope you’d see a hint of a smile on his face. While the first season has tackled a lot about corporate manipulation of the unsuspecting public, and how an untraceable group of hacktivists has worked its way to stopping this corporation from taking advantage of the public, the second season starts up with the after effects of what the group has done. It also delves heavily on the personal journey of Elliot as he battles anxiety and the “illusion of control.” This is definitely one of the great TV shows out there that you do not want to miss on, especially now that we are waiting on the next GoT installments.

Voltron: Legendary Defender

This only takes about less than 6 hours of your time, and that I’m sure you’ll be able to find quite easily while waiting for the next season of Game of Thrones. As I have mentioned in my review not too long ago, this is a reboot of the Voltron you have seen and loved during late afternoons back in the late 80s. It is a great re-envisioning of the franchise as it gives the series a boost in both the story and technical departments.

Voltron: Legendary Defender recently wrapped it’s first season with 11 episodes (13 if you break the first episode apart), each with a run-time of between 23-25 minutes. It’s quite an easy , but highly entertaining watch. It follows the story of 5 paladins, each wielding one of the lion mechas that ultimately form Voltron.

Daredevil

This has to be my favorite Marvel TV series, not that I watch many. Plus, I think I am interested with extremely challenged protagonists: CIA agent with bipolar disorder, computer engineer with schizophrenia, and with Daredevil, a blind superhero, which Charlie Cox played on point. There were many superheroes who had it easy, like Superman being born with his powers, or Thor who wields a hammer, but to be a superhero without the sense of sight? Sure the heightened sense of hearing compensates for it, but still, assuming the role of a superhero still requires a lot of physicality, and quite frankly, Matt Murdock does not have the power to counter stabs and bullets.

Daredevil is an American television series released in binge-friendly Netflix fashion. It follows the story of Matt Murdock, lawyer-by-day, vigilante-crime-fighter-by-night against the nefarious underworld magnate Kingpin. There has been two seasons so far, with 13 episodes each, both extraordinarily well-written and well-acted. The action sequences are to watch out for as each season has an extremely well-crafted fight scene the series can boast of. During the first season, there was an intense one-take hallway fight scene, which was then topped by the long-take stairwell fight scene on Season 2. You may watch these scenes, but be wary! If you haven’t seen it yet, you might just be better off seeing these scenes play out throughout the series rather than spoil yourselves.

Game of Thrones

While waiting for season 7 of Game of Thrones, why don’t you indulge with, well… Game of Thrones! Despite having 6 seasons so far, and with ten 50-minute episodes each, I think Game of Thrones is one of the easily re-watchable TV series out there. And to be honest, there are many easter eggs on the earlier seasons that make references to scenes played out in the latter seasons, which obviously makes it all the more fun to re-watch over and over again, thus either clearing up something in episodes before or after, or revealing new discoveries about a particular character. Having known for surprising its audiences with its unexpected twists and turns, re-watching the series again makes for a new experience.

Have you seen any of the above TV series? Do you have a suggestion of your own? Sound off at the comments section and share your thoughts!